Prince George
Prince George, originally Fort George, is a city in northern
British Columbia, near the junction of the Nechako and
Fraser Rivers. The Carrier Sekani name for this junction is “Thle-et-leh”, meaning
the confluence.
1This fur-trading post was founded by
Simon Fraser of the North West Company in 1807 and named after
King George III.
2 Trade at Fort George carried on through the 1800s, though
Fort Saint James, its rival, reigned as the main trading post.
3 An 1862 visitor to Fort George described it as a
dreary Hudson Bay Company’s trading post, infested with dogs.
4In
this despatch,
Douglas describes the harsh winter living conditions at Fort George:
the cold being then intense, often 20 degrees below Zero (Fahrenheit), the Rivers
frozen, and the ground invariably covered with snow...the miner has no inducement
to remain, and possibly has not means enough to purchase a supply of food to keep
him until the return of the mining season.
The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway passed near Fort George in 1903, which caused its
expansion.
5 The town soon surpassed
Fort Saint James and other communities to become Prince George,
British Columbia’s Northern Capital.
6
- 1. Prince George, BC Geographical Names Information System.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Art Downs, Paddlewheels on the Frontier (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co, 1971), 47-59.
- 5. G. P. V. Akrigg and H. B. Akrigg, British Columbia Place Names (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), 215.
- 6. Welcome to the City of Prince George, City of Prince George.